


ocean man

by pedipalps



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, First Meetings, M/M, Merstuck, mermaid eridan, sollux nearly drowns wassup
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-01-22
Packaged: 2019-10-14 10:19:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17506727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pedipalps/pseuds/pedipalps
Summary: You're overreacting, you know it -- no rational person would yell at the ocean and throw their shoes into it from off the end of a dock. You, however, are most certainly not a rational person, and so you turn around with a huff and stomp your way back towards the shore.Before you can make it however, you feel something hard and wet hit you in the back, causing you to stumble. You quickly turn around just in time to see your other shoe flying towards you right before it collides with your forehead. You're knocked back, and you feel the edge of the dock smack into your spine, and just before you hit the surface of the water you remember you don't know how to swim.





	ocean man

**Author's Note:**

> yo holy shit okay so basically im really fucking glad this is done??? i started writing it in early july of 2017 so like,,,, its been in the works a long ass time dudes
> 
> i had like a whole story planned out and everything that i never got around to doing but like who knows maybe if i get motivated enough i might continue this
> 
> im just. really really glad i finished it adfajdkjaad

You didn't know what it was about the ocean that drew you to it nearly every night. You'd never really had much interest in water -- pools, lakes, oceans or otherwise -- but there was something about the smooth surface, broken by waves only on the windiest nights, that acted like a sort of magnet for you whenever you couldn't sleep.

There were a lot of nights where you couldn't sleep.

As a result of this, there were a lot of nights where you went to the ocean.

You never said anything, never got into the water -- there was a certain peace to the place that you would hate to ever disturb. You liked to just sit and watch. There wasn't exactly much to watch, but that certainly didn't stop you from just staring out at the water and the horizon.

You can't quite remember the first time you went, but you're glad you did. You like the peace, the tranquility that comes at only those few hours -- past when all the late-night partiers and night shift commuters had gone and too early for any of the morning's beach joggers or enthusiastic boaters to have yet made an appearance. There's never anyone but you, sitting alone on the end of a short pier and watching the moon's reflection on the water's glassy surface, broken by the occasional small wave.

Or at least that's how it used to be.

Tonight something's different. You can't tell what it is, but you know that everything is not the way it usually is. Something small in the back of your mind tells you that you're not the only one here, that's what seems so off, you're not alone but the better part of you is certain that it isn't true. You'd be able to tell if someone was here, you'd be able to see them -- and you can't. You can't see anyone because there's no one here for you to see. The only person you can see is yourself, looking back at you from the surface of the sea as you lean forward and rest your chin on your palms to gaze down at your reflection in the water.

You look down at yourself for so long that after a while it's almost as if you're not anymore; it begins to seem like you're looking past your reflection, down into the water beneath it, and for a second that same small, annoying, insignificant part of your mind tells you that there's something there. For a moment you decide to humor it, and you break away from your blank expression and furrow your brows and frown a little, searching for movement, looking for something that you're sure isn't there.

For a brief moment you think you see something, but as you squint you can't make anything out beneath the dark surface and you sigh, lifting your head up to look out at the horizon and dropping your hands into your lap and resting them there.

You set your expression blank again, and you concentrate. You try as hard as you can to relax, to convince yourself that there really is nothing different than any other night. Eventually you think you manage.

\---

The next night, it happens again.

You don't see anything or anyone, but there's something off -- something is different, and you know it almost as soon as you get to your normal spot and sit down. Staring down at your reflection but no further like you had the night before, you watch yourself as you sigh and run your hands through your disheveled hair. You're too tired for this. Absentmindedly you think that maybe this is only happening because you're too tired. You need more sleep than you're getting, you know it -- and yet you refuse to actually try.

As hard as you try to just ignore whatever it is, you can't. You hate that something so insignificant -- so small and unimportant that you can't even see what it is -- could throw off the mood of the spot. Your spot. You still end up staying there for a good couple of hours, but it does nothing like it usually does to help you relax and you find yourself feeling just as tired in the morning as the nights when you stayed home and tried to force yourself asleep.

You really hope that it's something that will go away soon.

\---

It doesn't go away. At least, it hasn't after two weeks, by which point you're kind of fed up with it. Normally, if you stayed at your spot for a few hours and let yourself relax, having to be up in the mornings and run on only two or three hours of sleep was a bit more bearable than it could've been, but the same nagging feeling that something wasn't right had persisted. You'd never been a morning person before, but without your usual means of mental rest you were a total mess.

You needed it to stop.

You're fairly certain that to any onlookers, you would look absolutely insane, stomping onto a dock at three in the morning and yelling at the top of your lungs at something that you can't see. You're also fairly certain that you don't care.

"Hey, asshole!" You think, in the back of your mind, that whatever is throwing off your nights technically can't be an asshole, due mostly to not being human, but you don't care enough to correct yourself and instead continue to yell at everything around you as if it were a person. "I don't know what it is that made you decide to fuck with me of all people, but I sure as hell don't fucking appreciate it!" You aren't sure exactly what you're shouting at; you keep shifting your focus from the dock, to the sky, to the moon, and finally to the water. You've never been this loud before, not here.

You catch sight of your own reflection in the still water, and you glare at yourself before deciding that somehow, the image of you on the surface of the ocean must be the one at fault. Without thinking, you pull off one of your shoes and throw it into the water, at yourself, as hard as you can, shattering the picture of yourself and sending a splash of water into the air. "Leave me the fuck alone!" There's water on your face, tears and the ocean, and the fact that you know you're crying serves only to make you angrier.

That's enough, you think. You don't like this, you don't like feeling so tired, so wrong, so helpless, and your quick decision to throw your shoe into the water doesn't seem like it was a very good idea anymore. You would, though, rather walk home with no shoes than with just one, so with another loud shout, you yank your second shoe off and send it down into the water to join its match.

You're overreacting, you know it -- no rational person would yell at the ocean and throw their shoes into it from off the end of a dock. You, however, are most certainly not a rational person, and so you turn around with a huff and stomp your way back towards the shore.

Before you can make it however, you feel something hard and wet hit you in the back, causing you to stumble. You quickly turn around just in time to see your other shoe flying towards you right before it collides with your forehead. You're knocked back, and you feel the edge of the dock smack into your spine, and just before you hit the surface of the water you remember you don't know how to swim.

The water is cold, because of course it would be, because it's after 3 in the morning and it's nearing wintertime and god dammit you really wish you could think of a way to get out of this. You're flailing your arms and kicking your legs wildly, but you can only manage to keep your head above the surface for a few seconds before you get a lungful of the sea and slip beneath the waves that you're making.

You can see the surface, the lights from the city beyond the shore shining through the sea, and if you could breathe you would laugh at how beautiful it looks. You claw at the water around you as you choke, reaching for the surface but still sinking, and you feel your feet hit the bottom. Just as the world starts to go black and you slide your eyes shut, something rams into your side and wraps what feels like arms around your middle, and before you can think about what it might be it's pulling you out of the water and setting you on the dock you just fell off of. It pushes against your chest a few times with tremendous force and you feel all the water you inhaled come rushing back out. You shoot up into a sitting position and lean over and start coughing and retching to try and get the ocean out of you, and you don't stop until you're sure you'll be able to breathe when you do. You're pretty sure your dinner comes out with the water but you don't care, you don't stop trying to get it out until it's gone. Funnily enough, once you're done you feel like you need a drink; your throat is dry and sore from all the coughing you'd done.

Then you remember that you should be dead. You were just drowning and there was nobody around to get you and you shouldn't be here, you should be on the bottom of the ocean but you're not and that means that someone or something pulled you out and you need to know what or who it was.

You start to look up slowly, but it doesn't take long before you see a pair of pale grey hands holding on to the edge of the dock. You freeze as soon as you spot them, and then slowly move your eyes upwards until you see its face, peering at you from above the water. It looks human, if you ignore the grey skin and large fins and fucking gills and holy shit a mermaid just saved your life.

You shout in surprise, your sore throat protesting, and you try to scoot away from it, but your body is so worn out that you can only move yourself a few inches before you have to stop. The mermaid frowns a little, and you nearly shit yourself when it talks.

"Ya know, that ain't exactly the kind a' thanks I was expectin' for savin' your life." It has a deep voice, and you're still having a really hard time believing all of this.

"I'm dead, right?" you ask. "There's no way this is real. Mermaids aren't real." You look at it directly in the eye. "You're not real."

It rolls its eyes at you, that asshole, and gives you a blank look to match its deadpan sarcastic tone when it speaks again. "Yes, you're right. I don't exist. You've somehow died and you're imagining bein' alive and that a fake magic mermaid saved you and is talkin' to ya now."

You scowl at him, but you can't think of a smart way to respond. "Well… shut up."

It snorts a laugh at you, then, and applauds sarcastically. "Thank you, so very much, for your wise words. I cannot express just how fuckin' moved I am." It crosses its arms and sets them back down on the dock, resting its chin on them and seems to wait for you to speak.

"Well… why are you here? Who are you?" You force yourself to relax a little, settling into a more comfortable sitting position with your legs crossed, resting your elbows on your knees.

"I could ask you the same thing," it replied with a wave of its hand. "I could also ask why you threw your shoes at me. Care to explain that one?"

You look back over your shoulder awkwardly, even though you know that nothing's there, and avoid making eye contact with the thing in front of you as you blush a bit while you speak. "I uh… wasn't throwing them at you." Then you remember: after you threw your shoes in the water, something had thrown them back, which was what ultimately lead to you falling and nearly drowning. "You threw them back, though. You threw them at me and they knocked me into the water and I nearly drowned, so I don't think I'm the one that has to do any explaining here." You're getting frustrated, and you're sure it's showing on your face.

It shrugs and replies, "I was just givin' 'em back to you. Easy." It waves its hand again, and you think you want to smack it, just for doing the same thing twice. "Your turn. Why were you out here in the first place?"

You debate with yourself for a moment, unsure of how much you really want to tell this thing, but eventually you decide that it doesn't really matter and you tell it, "I couldn't sleep. A lot of the time I can't sleep."

It doesn't seem to connect the dots. "And?"

You huff and reply, "and when I can't sleep, I come out here."

"I see." It nods, as if in approval of your reasoning.

You look it in the face for a moment, and scoot forward a bit before asking, "and what about you? What are you doing here? What's so interesting about this spot that you have to come to it every night for two straight weeks?" You pause, and then continue quietly, to yourself, "at least, I assume you've been here every night. It would explain why I've felt like there's someone else here."

Now, it would seem, it was the mermaid's turn to blush -- a shade of purple that you definitely weren't expecting because people don't blush purple, but you suppose that this thing isn't technically a person anyway so you decide to ignore it beyond acknowledging that holy shit it's face is kind of glowing. "Um… no reason."

You smirk a little, and your tone becomes somewhat teasing as you reply, "come on, you've gotta have something. You can't have just been coming here for no reason at all."

It doesn't answer, but its eyes flicker around, looking at everything except for you. "Uh.. y'know... the uh, the fish over here." after seemingly settling on this excuse, it looks back at you. Its shoulders raise and it grins a bit sheepishly, and you know that it's lying before it can even finish explaining itself. "They're- they're different from the ones I can see back at home."

Your face goes blank and you have to try to stop yourself from rolling your eyes. You don't do a very good job. Your voice is deadpan as you reply, "yeah, uh-huh. Sure. The fish."

It scowls and its face turns red again, and you can't help but notice those fins on either side of its head press back against its skull. You can tell it knows that you saw right through its bullshit excuse, but it still tries to defend itself. "Yeah. The fish."

"Well, then, I guess I shouldn't bother you anymore. I'll go ahead and go back to my house now." You move to stand up, and you can feel your muscles protesting but you keep going anyway. "I'd hate to interrupt you watching your special fish."

You manage to make it up to a squatting position before it interrupts you. "No! Wait," it says, reaching one hand out towards you and catching on your shorts. You don't say anything, and after it seems to be sure that you aren't going anywhere it lets go, settling back down from the elevated position it was in and placing its hands back on the edge, reminiscent of how it was positioned when you first saw it. It's face is nearly completely purple and there's a dim light surrounding it because it's blushing so hard. "I, uh…" It stops, and you can tell it's avoiding looking at your eyes.

You don't say anything, but you raise your eyebrows slightly at it even though you know it's not going to see them because it still won't look directly at you.

After a moment, its eyes settle on a position, looking down at its hands. It says something, an answer possibly, but it's too quiet for you to be able to hear.

"What was that?" you ask, not moving your eyes from the ones on the mermaid's face, even though it can't see them. It lets them flicker up at you, and you make eye contact for a brief moment before it looks back down again and repeats itself.

"I, uh… I come here to watch you." You're sure that if it were possible, the creature in front of you would start blushing even harder. As it is now, practically its entire body has lit up, and if it were any other time of the night you'd be worried that someone could come by and catch you, just because this fucker is glowing so damn bright.

Somehow, even though you knew this thing's first excuse had been complete bullshit, you still manage to be surprised. Your face heats up a little bit and if it were any brighter outside you would worry that the creature in front of you would be able to see you blushing. "Wow. I have to be honest, I'm kinda surprised, though I don't know what else I would have expected." You collect yourself and smirk a bit. "Can't blame you though, I am pretty great."

"Shut up," it mumbles. It looks angry and it's still glowing so damn bright and something in the back of your mind says it's kind of cute, but you don't say that out loud. "It's not like I like you or anythin', I just don't get to see humans very often and you're, uh... you're interestin' to watch."

You still don't quite believe this thing. "Me? Interesting? I'm having a hard time believing that one. I come out here to do nothing, I can't imagine that's very fun to watch."

It shrugs. "It's mostly just 'cause you're human. We don't get many of you back home."

"I wouldn't exactly expect you to," you chuckle a bit, "not that I would know where it is you're from."

"Yeah, even if you could hold your breath that long you probably wouldn't be able to find it." It shrugs, and you almost laugh a little at how casual the action seems to be, even though this thing is still providing a fairly good light source for the small surrounding area.

"Yeah, probably." While you're thinking about it -- how human a shrug managed to seem -- you start to feel a bit bad for calling the creature in front of you an "it" in your mind. "Hey, uh, what's-" you clear your throat a little, "do you, uh, do you have a name?"

They look at you with an expression that you can only read as surprise: their eyes are wide and their mouth is open slightly for a moment before it seems to collect itself enough to answer, shaking their head a bit. "Um. It's Eridan. Ampora. That's uh- yeah."

"Eridan." You say the name out loud, getting a feel for it, before you tell them yours. "My name is Sollux Captor. It's uh… nice to meet you?" you chuckle a bit and hold out a hand to Eridan, who snorts in a small laugh and reaches out a hand to shake yours.

"The pleasure's all mine, Sollux." You get the feeling that they're trying to hold in a laugh, and you can't stop yourself from smiling a bit before you ask your next question, if only because you have a damn good feeling that they'll think it's pretty funny.

"So, I have a question for you, Eridan."

"Okay, go ahead." You can see in the dim light let off by their still-kind-of-glowing face that they're a bit confused, probably wondering what kind of question you could possibly have to ask.

You almost say something like "don't laugh at me", but you think better of it because you know that Eridan is probably going to laugh at you anyway. "Are you a guy?"

As it turns out, you were correct. He snorts, as if trying to hold in a laugh, but then lets go and bursts into laughter that makes you feel your face heat up a bit more than it already had.

You look around a bit awkwardly, even though you know there's no one there to see you. "Fuck off, okay? It was a stupid question, I got it."

After a few moments, his laughter dies down and he moves his hand to wipe a tear from his eye. "No, no, it's fine." He's still chuckling some, but it's not enough to keep him from speaking. His face is purple, like yours would be red if you had laughed as hard as he just did. It's kind of blotchy, and as weird of a thought as you know it is for you to have, especially considering you've only just met him and he's a literal mermaid, you think it's kind of cute. "Yes, for your information, I am. Uh. A guy. I'm guessing I can assume the same of you?"

You look back at him and nod. "Yeah. Uh, sorry that I had to ask, I, uh, wasn't sure if that's even how it works for you, y'know?" Your face is still red, there's no doubt in your mind about that. You've been awkwardly shrugging for a bit now. "Like, mermaid shit. Could be different. Who fucking knows?" You try and laugh to lighten the mood a bit, but it also comes out awkward and after a second you decide to stop trying and just sit there silently, content to stay quiet rather than try to say something and embarrass yourself further.

He's still chuckling lightly as he repeats your words as an answer back to you. "Who fucking knows."

Suddenly Eridan seems to notice something that you can't see, and he turns around quickly and stares out towards the horizon. He turns back to you and says, "I have to go." He pauses for a second, his fins pressed sheepishly against the sides of his head. "Will you come back tomorrow?"

You're unsure for a moment, but you figure that he hasn't tried to kill you and doesn't seem like he plans on doing so, and from looking at his face now you get the feeling that you're probably something like the most exciting thing that's happened to him recently if not in his whole life, so you say "yeah, sure, I guess. Why not."

He smiles. "Good. I'll see you later then."

You've only barely raised your hand to wave at him before he's gone. And suddenly you're alone again, and suddenly you realize just how fucking cold it is.

You look around you, surveying your surroundings and assuring yourself that yes, you're still here and yes, you're still soaking wet, which probably explains at least part of why you're so goddamn cold. You push yourself up onto your feet, careful of your shaky legs to make sure that you don't fall back into the ocean that you'd just recently been saved from.

As you walk slowly back to your house, you think that you're definitely going crazy, and that you're definitely going back there tomorrow.

 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! like i said in the beginning notes, theres a chance that i will eventually continue this, but for now this is it and even if i do write more it wont be for a While so
> 
> anyway i hope you enjoyed it! my tumblr is not-dirk-strider and please feel free to send asks/messages/questions!


End file.
